VIDEO: Anxiety: 11 Things We Want You to Understand

Many people who live with fibromyalgia also suffer anxiety. Given that our bodies are in perpetual “fight or flight” mode, the added burden of anxiety is almost overwhelming.

Anxiety disorders are a group of mental disorders characterized by feelings of anxiety and fear. Anxiety is a worry about future events, and fear is a reaction to current events. These feelings may cause physical symptoms, such as a fast heart rate and shakiness.

While anxiety is different for everyone, this video offers 11 things to help us understand anxiety.

Quick way to invalidate another person’s feelings:Everyone has some anxiety.

"Given that our bodies are in perpetual “fight or flight” mode, the added burden of anxiety is almost overwhelming."

The idea that a person with FM has a body in perpetual "fight or flight" mode is an hypothesis - it is NOT a fact!
This hypothesis comes from some of the symptoms:
disturbed sleep
fatigue
memory dysfunction
IBS
urinary frequency
etc

These symptoms are only some of the symptoms in FM and they occur in many disorders.

So some people have hypothesized that FM involves a heightened, prolonged fight or flight response.

The next step is to say that FM is a form of anxiety because one of the main syndromes of anxiety is a prolonged fight or flight physiology.

The final step is to say that FM is a form of depression because a prolonged anxiety is often associated with depression.

So lots of people think that FM (and ME/CFS) is a form of depression with physical symptoms and the sufferer has faulty illness beliefs.

Yes anxiety accompanies FM - you would expect that in a condition which renders a disability which no one can explain or treat effectively.